- Houthis claim attacks on Saudi capital, after flames seen near Riyadh airport
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked ‘sensitive’ sites in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday with missiles and drones, hours after flames and a large plume of smoke were seen near the city’s main airport. Saudi Arabia had sent alerts overnight warning of potential danger around Riyadh, amid an escalation in attacks by the Houthis in the kingdom. Reuters video and photographs showed a huge pillar of black smoke rising in the area, with the airport highway, main terminal building and other facilities in the foreground.” (09/20/26)
- Pakistan: Car bomb attack near mosque kills 21, injures 100
Source: United Press International
“At least 21 people were killed and more than 100 injured Friday when a car carrying explosives detonated near a mosque in a police compound in Pakistan. Following the explosion, police in Kohat said, at least seven ‘terrorists’ stormed the compound and exchanged gunfire with officers, Dawn reported. … Local reporters said the attack was claimed by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban that supports a strict version of Islamic law.” (09/18/26)
- The Hague: Dutch riot police break up far-right protest after violence erupts
Source: ABC News
“Dutch riot police dispersed several hundred far-right protesters in The Hague on Saturday after violence erupted and local authorities banned a planned march in the city against immigration and asylum policies. Police officers made several arrests after some protesters started throwing fireworks and other projectiles at them. Justice Minister David van Weel called on X for an ‘extremely firm’ response to what he described as ‘disgusting scenes’ at the protest. He said that demonstrators made Nazi salutes, chanted antisemitic slogans, attacked police and threw fireworks at riot officers.” (09/19/26)
- Nato welcomes Greenland deal as Trump says it will give US ‘permanent security control’
Source: BBC News [UK]
“The US and Denmark have announced a deal on Greenland’s security that will be signed next week.
US President Donald Trump said the agreement would grant the US ‘permanent control over security, and all other needs’. Denmark’s Prime Minister said the deal ‘strengthens security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic area’ but did not address specifics in the agreement that Trump mentioned in a social media post. The deal comes after months of threats by Trump to ‘take’ Greenland over national security concerns, citing its strategic location for defence purposes and its mineral wealth.” (09/19/26) - US regime admits to four more maritime murders
Source: CBS News
“The U.S. military attacked a boat suspected of being used to smuggle drugs in the Caribbean Sea on Saturday, [murdering] four people, as the Trump administration continues its monthslong campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America. The latest attack brings the number of people who have been [murdered] in boat strikes by the U.S. military to at least 231 in 69 strikes since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls ‘narcoterrorists’ about one year ago.” (09/19/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/4-killed-u-s-strike-drug-boat-caribbean/
- Boebert Addresses Claims She Had Affairs with 3 Staffers, Paid $200,000 to Keep One from Speaking Out
Source: People
“Rep. Lauren Boebert is denying accusations that she engaged in sexual relationships with three of her staffers, as well as paid one of the staffers $200,000 not to file an ethics complaint. A complaint filed with the House Committee on Ethics on Thursday, Sept. 17 and obtained by the Colorado Times Recorder, alleges that the congresswoman, 39, had relationships with three House employees under her direct supervision. … In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for Boebert denied the allegations, calling them ‘baseless.’ ‘Congresswoman Lauren Boebert rejects these allegations as utterly false and there is no truth to them whatsoever,’ the spokesperson said. ‘This is nothing more than a politically motivated stunt designed to manipulate the ethics process, create headlines, smear her, and generate clickbait.'” (09/20/26)
https://people.com/lauren-boebert-addresses-claims-she-had-affairs-with-3-staffers-12129713
- Cuba hit with another nationwide blackout amid US fuel blockade
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Cuba’s electrical grid suffered a total collapse on Friday, plunging the nation into darkness and leaving millions without power amid a US pressure campaign that has largely blocked oil from reaching the Caribbean’s largest island. Friday’s collapse was triggered by a failure in high-voltage transmission lines in central Cuba that occurred around 2pm local time, authorities said. … Cuba’s aging power generation system has been under severe strain from fuel shortages and decrepit infrastructure for years, but a US-imposed oil blockade that began in January has vastly worsened blackouts and led to more frequent grid collapses.” (09/19/26)
- Trump says his planned triumphal arch will double as a military complex to store ammunition
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“US President Donald Trump has said his proposed triumphal arch will double as a complex to store military equipment, complete with the ability to deploy snipers and drones. In a Sunday morning post, Trump said he is updating the plans at the ‘strong request’ of the US military and for ‘national security purposes’. … Construction on Trump’s 250-foot arch, planned for a site across the Potomac River from Washington DC just outside the Arlington National Cemetery, was expected to begin this month.” (09/20/26)
- Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, Google sued over call to ‘pace’ AI development
Source: Politico
“AI giants Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google are facing allegations of collusion following recent calls for a coordinated slowdown of AI development, according to a civil lawsuit filed in federal court Friday. The complaint claims that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s public plea earlier this month for ‘industry-wide coordination’ to ‘pace the frontier’ of AI advancement, which drew agreement from SpaceXAI head Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis, amounted to an illegal business agreement between competitors under U.S. antitrust law.” (09/18/26)
- Sheeran apologizes for Macklemore backlash, encourages unity at first concert since fallout
Source: Fox News
“Ed Sheeran was overcome with emotion as he apologized to fans during his return to the stage Saturday following backlash after Macklemore was dropped from his tour. … ‘Now, I want to address the question of where I stand in the situation in Israel and Palestine and whether this concert here tonight implies where I stand. I’ve tried in my career not to be a political commentator of any kind, because I want my music and shows to be about unity not division, about humanity not politics. But this is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel at a … music festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.'” (09/19/26)
- Palestine: Israeli regime moving ahead with squat plans that would split West Bank in two, rights group says
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“A rights groups says the Israeli government is forging ahead with a contentious [squat] expansion plan that would effectively divide the occupied West Bank, a plan long criticized as a threat to the viability of a future Palestinian state. On Wednesday, Israeli rights group Ir Amim said Israel’s government will open the bidding for an additional 2,167 units in a [squat] project that would effectively cut the West Bank in two. … [Squat] development in this open tract of land east of Jerusalem known as E1 is especially contentious because it runs from the outskirts of Jerusalem deep into the occupied West Bank.” (09/18/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/west-bank-israel-elimination-project-settlements-9.7349605
- US congresscritter doubles down on exit from GOP
Source: SFGate
“Rep. Kevin Kiley, a former Republican who is facing an uphill reelection battle after losing most of his district due to redistricting, said he won’t caucus with his former party if he wins in November. The announcement came Wednesday during a forum hosted by Semafor, where Kiley doubled down on his move to abandon his party if reelected. He said that would include him losing access to agenda-setting decisions with the Republican Party and mean he would lose his seat on key committees. Kiley said he’s trying to change those rules so independents aren’t automatically blocked. … Kiley, who is 41 and has served two House terms, captured national attention in March when he announced that he was leaving the Republican Party and was instead running as an independent,after Californians overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50.” (09/18/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/kevin-kiley-republican-party-congress-22438270.php
- Trump bans CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House
Source: Axios
“President Trump said Friday he is banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House ‘effective immediately,’ escalating his long-running battles with news organizations. Trump is seeking to use White House access against news outlets whose coverage he objects to, while threatening to target additional organizations. Trump’s Truth Social post called the three outlets ‘Fake News’ and accused them of reporting ‘FICTION and LIES,’ before threatening to also ban other ‘Fake News Media Outlets.'” (09/18/26)
- IRGC claims strike on oil tanker in Strait of Hormuz
Source: L’Orient Today [Lebanon]
“Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Friday they struck an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, according to state news agency IRNA, as a British maritime agency also reported an attack. Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the strategic strait as Washington continues pressing its counter-blockade of Iranian ports during the Middle East war. Iran wants to charge ships for passage, attacking vessels it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.” (09/18/26)
- Russians begin three days of ceremonial “voting” in pre-rigged parliamentary “election”
Source: Associated Press
“Russians on Friday began three days of voting in the country’s first wartime parliamentary election, which features virtually no opposition and is all but certain to secure the Kremlin’s political dominance. Authorities spread the election over the weekend in a bid to boost turnout among the 111 million eligible voters and even allowed electronic balloting. Polls opened Friday and will close Sunday. The Kremlin wants the parliamentary election — the first since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — to underline public support for the war and give a veneer of legitimacy to its action. … The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political entity that dared to criticize the war, was removed from the ballot last month by Russia’s Supreme Court, and only has a few dozen candidates in the single-constituency races. Additionally, some anti-war politicians have been imprisoned or forced to flee abroad ahead of the campaign.” (09/18/26)
- US Regime Sanctions Bitcoin Exchange for Handling Iranian Regime’s Hormuz Transit Fees
Source: The Maritim Executive
“The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control has identified and sanctioned an Iranian bitcoin exchange linked to the ‘Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority,’ a front company that enables the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ fee-for-transit scheme for the Strait of Hormuz. In March, just weeks after the U.S.-Israeli strikes began, Iranian forces began an informal practice of charging safe-passage fees for the Strait of Hormuz at a rumored rate of up to $2 million per transit. This was later formalized as an ‘insurance’ fee payment, handled by ‘Hormuz Safe’ and the similar ‘Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company.’ … In a follow-up action announced Thursday, the Treasury said that it was also sanctioning BitBank, a cryptocurrency handling service used by HormuzSafe to process payments.” (09/17/26)
- Judge orders Trump to give 30 days’ notice before any “demolition” at Kennedy Center
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“A US federal judge has ruled the Trump administration must give 30 days’ notice before any ‘demolition’ occurs to the Kennedy Center, as President Donald Trump warned the Washington DC performing arts venue could be ‘ripped down’. The order comes after Trump was photographed onboard Air Force One looking at a poster with a headline that appeared to tout the demolition of the site. US District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered a detailed report of the centre’s ‘temporary closure’ for emergency repairs, and for written notice of any change to the scope of the project. In May, Cooper ordered the removal of Trump’s name from the building.” (09/17/26)
- Motion filed to stop carving of Trump’s name into US Institute of Peace building
Source: Politico
“Ousted board members of the U.S. Institute of Peace are asking a federal court to block the imminent carving of President Donald Trump’s name on the headquarters of the nonpartisan institution he sought to dismantle shortly after taking office. Members of the board who were removed by the administration filed an emergency motion Thursday in Washington in a dispute that has echoes of Trump’s effort to place his name on the Kennedy Center. The motion was filed as an emergency petition, alleging that a contractor has already been selected to carve Trump’s name into the Constitution Avenue headquarters that the administration sought to shutter as part of the Elon Musk-led DOGE effort to shrink the government.” (09/17/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/17/trump-carving-us-institute-of-peace-01083535
- UN mission finds grounds to believe US regime committed war, Iranian regime committed crimes against humanity
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“A United Nations fact-finding mission on Iran said Thursday it had reasonable grounds to believe the United States was behind two military strikes on a school and sports facility in Iran in February, and that these constituted war crimes. It also found that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their deadly crackdown on anti-government protests that occurred just weeks before the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28. The findings in a new report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, examined the American conduct during the Iran war that began in February and the Iranian government’s response to nationwide unrest that began in late December.” (09/17/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/un-report-us-strikes-iran-protests-9.7347566
- Bank of England Holds Rates Steady but Warns of Higher Inflation
Source: New York Times
“As the war in the Middle East continues to push up energy prices and foster heightened fears about inflation, the Bank of England held interest rates steady on Thursday. The decision to not raise rates this month makes it an outlier among other large global central banks. Policymakers at the central bank held rates at 3.75 percent, where they have been since late last year. The decision was announced a day after data showed inflation in Britain had risen to 3.1 percent in August, the fastest pace of price growth since March, driven by higher gasoline and diesel prices. It also follows the decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates on Wednesday, its first increase in more than three years. But officials at the Bank of England said the protracted conflict in the Middle East was increasing the probability that they would need to raise interest rates soon.” (09/17/260
- Beware of politicians claiming to protect us from the press
Source: The Hill
by Jonathan Turley“This week, it became apparent that everyone believes in a free press, as long as it costs them nothing. Politicians in both parties are now using their offices to insulate themselves from opposing coverage — all in the name of protecting the public or the press. President Trump has ordered the banning of critical media companies from the White House. Meanwhile, Democrats are fighting to block a corporate media merger on equally raw political grounds.” (09/19/26)
- Trump Reflects on Why the Democrats Won’t Put Up a Fight
Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader““I was in the Oval Office when I got a call with the results of the September 15th House Impeachment vote. Unbelievable. Of course, my Repubs all voted against this persecution, but 47 of the Dems, including their leaders (Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, and Richard Neal from Democratic Massachusetts) voted PRESENT! That is really a vote against Impeachment and makes them ON MY SIDE! My aide read their lame excuse, saying that ‘serious work’ had to be done, including ‘comprehensive investigations, reviews of thousands of documents … Congressional hearings, sustained public organizing … to build a broad national consensus.’ That’s why they voted PRESENT!’ ‘But they were really AWOL. The polls show well over a majority of people want me FIRED. The Dems are really cowards. All they had to do was to use my scores of Executive Orders, which they claim were illegal and unconstitutional.” (09/19/26)
- War Watch: The Storm Cone
Source: The Realist Review
by Martin Sieff“Sending massive US forces in to try and succeed where US air power and the Saudis have already failed is the next obvious line of attack open to Trump and Hegseth and the pundits who guide them on Fox News every night. And because it is so simplistic and obvious, it is virtually a guaranteed certainty that they will indeed take it. But it will still fail, all the same.” (09/18/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/war-watch-the-storm-cone
- Appeals Court Smacks Down Trump’s Third-Country Removal Policy
Source: The American Prospect
by Gillian Brockell“A federal appeals court roundly rejected the Trump administration’s third-country removal policy on Friday, largely upholding a lower court’s decision that the policy was unlawful. The three-judge panel on the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that immigrants must be given more time to raise fears about removal to a third country, while casting doubt on diplomatic agreements with the expanding network of ‘host’ countries. Immigration attorneys and immigrant rights groups hailed the decision, while noting it was unlikely to help the tens of thousands of immigrants already subjected to third-country removal. And though the decision is effective immediately, it may not stop the Supreme Court from using the so-called shadow docket to stay the ruling and allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to continue using the policy during appeal, they said.” (09/19/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/09/19/appeals-court-smacks-down-trump-third-country-removal-ice/
- How to Squander Good Will
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“Terrorists and their proponents have forfeited their right to sympathy.” (09/18/260
https://thedispatch.com/article/palestinians-irish-republicans-sympathy/
- The Iran war has disrupted oil markets. The fallout goes beyond that.
Source: Washington Post
by Morgan Bazilian“The economic effects of the U.S. war with Iran are often gauged by what the International Energy Agency has called the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. Cumulative losses exceeded 1.3 billion barrels as of June, and this spring prompted a global emergency oil reserve release that was more than double what the agency ordered after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Oil and diesel prices jumped after attacks on a key Saudi Arabian pipeline last week. But the fallout goes far beyond that: The war has caused a commodities crisis running several markets deep — and most of these markets have no reserves to rely on.” (09/18/26)
- Britain’s Childcare Problem Is Regulation, Not Money
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie“British parents hand over more than a third of a dual income household’s net earnings on childcare. That’s the highest burden in the OECD. The reflex is to call for more public money. But the international evidence points the other way. The problem isn’t spending. It’s regulation. At the heart of Britain’s high costs sits the child-to-staff ratio. For children under four, the average is 1:4.5, among the tightest in the developed world. Norway and France manage 1:9. Portugal and Luxembourg are similarly relaxed. None of them show the collapse in quality that stricter ratios are supposed to prevent. What they show instead is markedly lower cost to families.” (09/18/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/britains-childcare-problem-is-regulation-not-money
- China is fueling the Iran War; can Trump stop them?
Source: New York Post
by Dan Perry“Six months after America launched its war and blockade against Iran, the Islamic Republic is still projecting defiance. Its economy should be in shambles — yet the regime is behaving as though time is on its side. It hasn’t abandoned its regional ambitions or restrained its terrorist proxies. Instead, this week it escalated. That escalation is now visible on both sides of the Arabian Peninsula. Iran continues to impede commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. On the other side, the Houthis have seized the critical Yemeni port of Mokha, advanced toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and reached strategic Red Sea islands. … Every additional week in which Iran appears able to dictate the region’s economic temperature weakens the West’s credibility.” (09/19/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/09/19/opinion/china-is-fueling-the-iran-war-can-trump-stop-them/
- The State Created Affordability Crisis Behind Record Incomes
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey“Inflation is a government failure, a failure to the citizens of America. The government prints money to fund its overspending and takes on debt as a result, which devalues the U.S. Dollar. The government creates the inflation problem, and in 2020, it put fire onto the already burning flame of inflation by flooding the nation with printed money, which created the huge issues that live with us six years later. Printing money and subsidizing everything under the sun is a false cure for our economy; we should be removing the State from manipulating the currency supply.” (09/18/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/the-state-created-affordability-crisis
- This isn’t sci-fi, AI is already killing people
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Nick Cleveland-Stout“Palantir CEO Alex Karp proclaimed on a panel in 2024 that ‘technology should be able to reduce drastically the amount of collateral damage, civilian deaths.’ Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Deputy Director of the CIA David Cohen agreed. Proponents of artificial intelligence use in the military have long made some version of this argument — that the military’s adoption of AI will lead to a reduction in civilian harm. … The question is no longer theoretical, as the U.S. military is already deploying AI. The Pentagon struck 13,000 targets in just the first 38 days of war, aided by Palantir’s Maven Smart System to identify targets and choose weapons used for attacks. But experts at the hearing, hosted by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, said the argument that AI reduces civilian harm simply isn’t supported by the facts on the ground, pointing to Iran, Ukraine, Yemen, and Gaza as evidence.” (09/18/26)
- Not of This Earth
Source: Law & Liberty
by Stuart Halpern“Beyond raising foundational questions of individual autonomy versus governmental authority, our relationship to the Highest Authority would also be impacted by the arrival of ET-like creatures. After all, the question of whether other minds exist is also a question about what makes our own minds—and our moral obligations—distinctive. Would other-worldly beings have their own salvific commandments and beliefs?” (09/18/26)
- 15 Years After Occupy, the Case Against the System Has Never Been Clearer
Source: Inequality.org
by Deepak Xavier & Janet Mudzviti-Zhou“As we mark 15 years since Occupy Wall Street, it is worth remembering that the movement against inequality has a long lineage. The Gen Z-led protests flooding the streets of India, Kenya, Bolivia, and Tunisia today have been building for generations. On the last day of November 1999, tens of thousands of people shut down the World Trade Organization summit in Seattle. Trade unionists marched alongside environmentalists, students locked arms with farmers, and for a few extraordinary days the people who run the global economy could not get into their own meeting. The press called protesters a rabble with no coherent demand. They were wrong. The demand was simple and it has not changed: an economy that works for the many, not for a handful at the top.” (09/19/26)
https://inequality.org/article/15-years-on-from-occupy-the-long-fight-of-the-99-continues/
- AI and the Luddites
Source: EconLog
by Alberto Mingardi“The movement took its name from a Ned Ludd who never existed—yet protesters signed letters and proclamations against mechanization as Ned Ludd, King Ludd, or General Ludd. It began in Nottinghamshire in March 1811, peaked in 1812, and had flickered out by 1816. It was the most prominent, but neither the only nor the first, episode of machine-breaking. Resistance to the introduction of machines in production was not new. It was strongest in old trades, such as wool and hosiery, which were long established in England and capable of expressing political demands. Mechanization in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century England was not merely the introduction of new machinery; it was also a breakthrough in that particular technology known as organization.” (09/18/26)
- When Congress Is Silent, Trump Expands His Power
Source: Persuasion
by Charles Lane“The southern border is a case in point.” (09/18/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/congress-failed-to-act-on-the-border
- Herbert Spencer, Real Liberalism’s Advocate
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman“Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), the great English individualist and classical liberal, emphasized that societies based on contract, unlike societies based on status and coercion, blossom with creative diversity. (How wokeism has corrupted that word in our time!) Free association bestows countless benefits on all socioeconomic levels. Paradoxically, greater individuality accompanies growing interdependence through specialization, the division of labor, and trade. Self-sufficiency is the way to stay poor. The result of industrialism, Spencer wrote, is general affluence and a fading away of coercion.” (09/18/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-herbert-spencer-real-liberalisms
- Egypt Should Be Fighting Against the Houthis in Yemen
Source: American Greatness
by Adam Turner“The Shia Muslim terror proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Houthis of Yemen, are tightening their control over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. This is a big deal, because an average of 8.1 million barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum liquids moved through the Strait during the second quarter of 2026. There is also the non-energy trade. All this international trade then heads to Europe and/or the Americas. … With Iran also threatening the Strait of Hormuz—however ineffectively—this is bound to have grave repercussions for the world energy market and the international economy. Which leads me to my big question for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi: ‘What would you say … you do here, President Sisi?'” (09/18/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/09/18/egypt-should-be-fighting-against-the-houthis-in-yemen/
- Graduation Without Testing
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“While we’ve grown used to public school educators fiddling with grades, exams like those currently required — even if far from perfect — constitute an even better way to glean how well (or badly) teachers and students are doing. Government schools suffer, of course, from ‘increased spending and mediocre results,’ as Reason puts it. (I covered Michigan’s problems yesterday, for example.) The avoidance of ‘metrics’ — in business lingo — is just the kind of evasion that one might expect from under-performing institutions. New York’s opt-in downgrade is comparable to a failing student doctoring his report card or forging a parent’s signature.” (09/18/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/09/18/graduation-without-testing/
- Learning from the Failure of Maryland’s Digital Advertising Tax
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jared Walczak“A recent tax court ruling in Maryland pours cold water on a tax proposal championed in Michigan by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The Maryland Tax Court struck down that state’s first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax, ruling that it violated the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, as well as the interstate commerce and due process clauses of the US Constitution. Lawsuits have also been filed in Utah and Illinois, which adopted their own digital advertising taxes earlier this year.” (09/18/26)
https://fee.org/articles/learning-from-the-failure-of-marylands-digital-advertising-tax/
- Trump’s Iran War Is a Rolling Disaster With No End in Sight
Source: The UnPopulist
by Nicholas Grossman“More than six months after Trump started the war, and nearly three months after he signed an agreement that would supposedly end it and normalize shipping, the U.S. and Iran are still fighting over the Strait of Hormuz. The damage keeps growing, and the Trump White House is both unable to fix it and unwilling to admit it.” (09/18/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-iran-war-is-a-rolling-disaster
- Why Superintelligent AI Is an Existential Threat That Needs To Be Banned
Source: In These Times
by US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)“AI experts have told us that, within a few years, AI may be able to do anything we can do better than we can do it. The economic impact of that is that AI has the potential to eliminate tens of millions of jobs, wiping out entire professions and making it harder for young people to enter into the workforce. But it’s not just the economy. Psychologists have warned us about the increased isolation and mental health challenges young people are experiencing as they become more dependent upon an AI chatbot for their emotional support. Educators are worried about a decline in our kids’ reading scores, writing abilities and cognitive capabilities. Civil libertarians warn that AI is in the process of eviscerating our privacy rights by making it easier to collect and analyze every[thing we do], creating a mass surveillance state.” (09/17/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/bernie-sanders-artificial-intelligence-ai-openai-ban
- The Spindle-Proofing Business
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Sofia Karstens“A psyop is never just one thing. It’s a wilderness of mirrors. A single mirror shows you one reflection you can identify and correct for. A wilderness of them means every angle you check reflects another angle, with no clean vantage point outside the hall to verify against, which is functionally what a multi-actor convergence produces, even without any one person orchestrating it. You don’t need an overlord director standing behind the glass for the hall of mirrors to work. And that’s the unsettling part: a single coordinated psyop presumably has an off switch, in principle, if you ever find the operator. A wilderness of independently-incentivized mirrors doesn’t.” (09/18/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-spindle-proofing-business/
- Mike Johnson Proves That No Man’s Life, Liberty or Property are Safe While the Legislature Isn’t in Session
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“[A]s Gideon J. Tucker wrote in 1866, ‘no man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.’ … [Speaker of the House Mike] Johnson seems to have found a way to turn Tucker’s aphorism on its head, frequently using the absence of Congress to protect existing depredations, rather than the presence of Congress to drum up new ones. ‘The House has now canceled at least 63 scheduled voting days this Congress, including nine days this month alone,’ notes US Representative Ralph Norman (R-SC). When Johnson thinks he’s going to lose a vote — with ‘lose’ defined as upsetting or defying president Donald Trump — he just sends everyone home until he can whip a few more House members into line, or at least until the loss might come at a slightly less embarrassing point in the news cycle.” (09/17/26)
- Why Your Generation Was A Casualty
Source: The Findings Substack
by Paul Rosenberg“I’m retirement age, but I think it’s my duty to explain to young people why things are so hard for them. So, from here on I’ll be writing to you, meaning people who are roughly in the 18-45 age range. I’ll also be writing very freely and using a lot of generalities: you’ll have to interpret this for yourself. Let’s start by saying that millions of you have been given a raw deal. I’ve watched this in a great deal of discomfort: You struggle just to rent a house, much less buy one. Jobs come and go like the wind. Your university degree came with an inescapable pile of debt. You have conflicting moral leanings and opinions. All of this isn’t fair. But with that said, organizing your world around a villain is a road to nowhere.” (09/17/26)
https://thefindings.substack.com/p/why-your-generation-was-a-casualty
- Why Republicans Lose Elections And Blame Libertarians
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey“This morning I came across an article critical of Americans voting for Libertarians, as it takes away from Republican wins. I found this interesting because often we are criticized as tilting at windmills and a complete waste of people’s time, yet apparently, according to Edward Ring, we are a critical component in politics. Ring … attempts unsuccessfully to argue that ‘libertarians cause more harm than good.’ Why? Because Americans who vote for Libertarians cause Republican losses. … no political faction owns Americans’ votes. Politicians must earn our vote, and if Republicans and Democrats want Libertarians to vote for them, then they are going to demonstrate that they will protect our civil liberties, be fiscally responsible, and reduce government power. It shouldn’t be much to ask, but Ring doesn’t care about that; he wants Republicans to remain in power, and he views Libertarians as a roadblock and a hindrance.” (09/17/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/why-republicans-lose-elections-and
- Making Economics Humane Again
Source: Law & Liberty
by Paul Mueller“Postliberals as a group have made no secret of the fact that they view mainstream economics as inhumane with its focus on consumption and GDP growth. Sometimes their arguments are questionable, but it’s true that modern economics has a way of embracing a flat, utilitarian view of the world, sometimes pushing that view into realms where it doesn’t belong. But should economists incorporate concerns about virtue, ethics, and happiness into their economic theory? Yes, but this question is more difficult than it appears. The issue is not whether ethics matter, but whether ethics should shape economic models themselves or merely how those models are applied.” (09/17/26)
- Does American theater believe in free expression?
Source: Expression
by Kevin Ray“As theater artists in America, our most prized freedom should be the freedom to express our views, both on stage and off, even if those views are contentious, unpopular, or offensive. How can any artist hope to ignite meaningful thought or feeling if he can’t dare to say what he believes in his heart to be true? While private employers may generally hire and fire at will in New York State, legality is not the only measure of whether speech is truly free: a legal decision can still produce a chilling effect.” (09/17/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/does-american-theater-believe-in
- America deserves better guidance on how to avoid getting sick
Source: Fox News
by Robert F Kennedy, Jr., US Secretary of Health and Human Services“Prevention should be one of the most powerful tools in American medicine. We should identify disease early, prevent it when we can, and give doctors and patients the best evidence to make decisions about their health. Today, we are strengthening one of the institutions charged with doing exactly that. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, announced the appointment of eight new members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. We are reforming and refocusing the Task Force to strengthen scientific rigor, broaden clinical expertise, and improve the recommendations that inform preventive care across America. The Task Force carries enormous responsibility. Its recommendations influence how doctors screen for disease, how patients make decisions about preventive care, and how our country evaluates the evidence behind preventive medicine.” (09/17/26)
- English Departments Have Lost the Plot
Source: Persuasion
by Henry Oliver“The problem with the Princeton syllabus is not the individual courses. Fine, study socialism and Sondheim! The problem is the overall balance. These courses are all held in equal regard. The problem is the lack of insistence upon the canonical works of English. The problem is contemporary fiction instead of Shakespeare, dolls instead of George Eliot. Of the twelve courses you take as an English major, none is obliged to be on Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Wordsworth—authors our grandmothers might have read as school-leavers. Yes, the syllabus is ideological, but it is also just lame.” (09/17/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/students-read-the-canon-first
- Breaking: DA demands DNA from Chris Duncan and Haley Oliveaux’s mother
Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko“Louisiana continues to persecute a wrongly convicted man.” (09/17/26)
https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/breaking-da-demands-dna-from-chris
- EU and Canada pursue a values-based alliance
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“Canada clearly has no intention of allowing itself to become the United States’ 51st state. But it might be willing to consider becoming the 28th state to join the European Union. Sort of. On Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, invited the U.S.’s northern neighbor to join the 27-nation bloc – the world’s third-largest economy – as an ‘associate member’. Her reasoning? ‘We share one ocean, one set of values, one way of seeing the world’, Ms. von der Leyen declared. ‘We believe that power does not belong to the strongest, the richest or the loudest – but to all of us. That democracies have the freedom to choose with whom to work.’ Such a partnership, she was careful to note, is ‘not against anyone else, but for our common strength’.” (09/16/26)
- Trump loves to throw around taxpayers’ money
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes“Trump has turned much of historical Republican orthodoxy on its head, including on immigration, trade and policy toward Russia. But his utter disregard for annual deficits — a record $2 trillion for this fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 — and his shameful profligacy with taxpayers’ money is something Americans haven’t seen in their lifetimes, in either party. Worse, Trump implies otherwise, that he is fiscally responsible, and he does it with lies that are so easily refuted, so often contradicted by his own words, that it’s a marvel that even such a chronic prevaricator as himself can utter them.” (09/17/26)
- “F— Around and Find Out”: Krasner Referred to US Attorney for Criminal Investigation
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley“Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has long been to the law what Philly fans are to football: they are simply willing to do things that others will not do. While Philly fans are known for taking their demonstrations to shocking levels, Krasner has long denounced adversaries as Nazis and pledged to arrest federal immigration officials. However, a federal judge has finally had enough of the anger and antics that have long been the special brand of Philadelphia’s top prosecutor. For full disclosure, Krasner and I went to college together at the University of Chicago in the same class in the 1980s. Since then, we have debated and disagreed on fundamental legal and ethical principles.” (09/17/26)
- By Nearly Every Metric, the US Is Losing the Iran War
Source: Foreign Policy
by John Haltiwanger“The United States has had military successes in the war, but, overall, the conflict has been a strategic disaster for Washington. The fighting has exposed serious vulnerabilities for the U.S. military and left its forces spread thin, cost the United States an estimated $38.1 billion so far, and caused a global energy crisis. The war is extremely unpopular with American voters, and a growing number of Republicans in Congress are voting in favor of ending the conflict; one GOP congressman has even moved to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the war. But for all of those costs, the United States has achieved very little in Iran—and in some cases, things have gotten worse.” (09/17/260
- Fast Conservation
Source: Property and Environment Research Center
by Sophie Gilbert, Danielle Bissett, & Tim Male“Rome was not built in a day, but a beaver dam can be. Nature’s engineers can build durable dams very quickly, and maintain them over time too, slowing down (not blocking) and storing water, allowing sediment to settle, and even mitigating wildfire risk. … It can take years for people to build a so-called beaver dam analogue, not because it’s complicated—it’s not; some practitioners call it ‘putting sticks in a creek,’ which is pretty accurate—but because it requires a slew of permits from different agencies that can take years.” (09/17/26)
- Mail-In Voting “Safe” for Now; Let’s Act to Protect Our Elections for Always
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman“Voters had a big win at the Supreme Court this week. What does it all mean? On Monday, the court refused to allow the Postal Service to implement a new rule that would have curbed mail voting. But the one-paragraph ruling seemed to say more than ‘not yet’. The Trump administration, the justices ruled, was ‘unlikely to succeed on the merits’. This was great news for the millions of citizens who rely on mail voting, the method now used by 1 in 3 voters. It was utterly bonkers that the White House tried to exert control over the election system. That’s illegal, a fact now confirmed over and over.” [editor’s note: So this Dramacrat advocacy group sees nothing wrong with mailing ballots to everyone who WAS once registered, regardless of current status, so ballot harvesting becomes the norm? – SAT] [additional editor’s note: So SAT is now a practitioner of the tactic of putting a question mark after a false claim so as to pretend that it’s a question instead of just a false claim. Sad! – TLK] (09/17/26)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/toward-more-representative-government
- Free Talk Live, 09/19/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Nobody returns :: Trump’s war on morality :: Skeeter makes one his most disjointed calls yet :: Dave Ridley calls about the ‘AI freakout’ :: Fauci’s ‘game on’ :: Sarah in NM calls about the house resolution in NM to give a salary to state reps :: David in NM calls about the corruption of family/probate courts:: Free Talk Live 2026-09-19 :: Hosts: Stu, Nobody, Mr. Penguin.” (09/19/26)
- The Good Fight, 09/19/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Jerry Kaplan on Why AI Won’t Kill Us All.” (09/19/26)
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 09/18./26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“LP Judicial Committee New Hampshire Decision Pt 2 – Moellman’s Opinion.” (09/19/26)
- The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan, 09/18/26
Source: The Weekly Dish
“Arianna Huffington On Living Well.” (09/18/260
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/arianna-huffington-on-living-well
- In The Tank, episode 553
Source: Heartland Institute
“The End Times As a Political Weapon?” (09/19/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/the-end-times-as-a-political-weapon-in-the-tank-553/
- Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 09/19/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“Space: The Pentagon’s New Battlefield w/ Andrew Corbley.” (09/19/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 09/18/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Trump’s ‘Big Decision’ Should Be To Walk Away From The Iran War.” (09/18/26)
- Reasonably Optimistic, 09/18/26
Source: Washington Post
“Why everyone seems to hate Flock cameras.” (09/18/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/why-everyone-seems-to-hate-flock-cameras
- Rising, 09/18/26
Source: The Hill
“‘Hostile act’: Trump threatens to stop trading with EU over Canada associate membership.” (09/18/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/6083817-rising-september-18-2026/
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 09/18/26
Source: The New Republic
“Fox in Full Meltdown as Network’s Own Poll Hits Trump with Brutal News.” (09/18/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/215566/fox-full-meltdown-network-poll-hits-trump-brutal-news
- Serious Trouble, 09/18/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Kennedy, Centered.” (09/18/26)
- Checks & Balances, 09/18/26
Source: Checks & Balances
“Federal Judges Under Siege: Threats to Judicial Independence.” (09/18/26)
https://chkbal.substack.com/p/federal-judges-under-siege-threats
- Freakonomics Radio, episode 687
Source: Freakonomics
“Are Prediction Markets the Best Forecasting Tool Ever — or Just Another Casino?” (09/18/26)
- The Dispatch Podcast, 09/18/26
Source: The Dispatch
‘Why GOP Candidates Are Ignoring Trump.” (09/18/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/why-gop-candidates-are-ignoring-trump/
- The Anarchist Experience, episode 598
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich and Riley discuss recent activist wins in NH court, leaning on your established support system, and this HEADLINE: There’s No Market Failure in Choosing to Stay Home. So Why Subsidize It?” (09/18/26)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2026/09/18/the-anarchist-experience-598/
- The Political Orphanage, 09/17/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
“Are we racing toward an AI-powered golden age—or building something we won’t be able to control? Justin Robert Young joins to explore the emerging philosophical divide over artificial intelligence: accelerate innovation and reap potentially enormous benefits, or slow down before we unleash risks we don’t understand. We discuss OpenAI and Anthropic, the politics of AI regulation, competition with China, whether the AI boom is a bubble, the strongest case for the AI doomers, and the possibility that advances in AI could transform medicine, work, and even human aging. Plus: Justin explains why the best way to prepare for the AI revolution is surprisingly simple—start asking it dumb questions.” (09/17/26)
- Libertarian Angle, 09/17/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“America’s Healthcare Morass.” (09/17/26)
- Rising, 09/17/26
Source: The Hill
“Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is under fire after sending House members home early for their recess, which will last until after the midterm elections.” (09/17/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/6083816-rising-september-17-2026/
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 09/17/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Are America’s Youth Really Embracing Socialism?” (09/17/26)
- Underthrow Podcast, 09/17/26
Source: Underthrow
“Insanity Shouldn’t Cancel a Debt.” (09/17/26)